Tokyo German Village 東京ドイツ村

Tokyo German Village is a large agricultural park in the boondocks of Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture. It puts on a grand display of Christmas lights from Nov. 1 to March 31.

If you don't have a car, you can go there by bus from Sodegaura Bus Terminal or JR Sodegaura Station. Only three buses a day.

Sodegaura Bus Terminal, bus stop 5.

JR Sodegaura Station. By bus it takes 45 min. or longer to get to the German Village.

Bus stop at Tokyo German Village. Return buses are also very few.

Entrance to Tokyo German Village where you pay admission. Very cheap compared to Tokyo Disneyland, also in Chiba Prefecture.

They have "Tokyo" in their name, but it's quite far from Tokyo.

There's wide open lawn to walk across to get to the center of the park.

Wide open lawn also has LED lights embedded in some areas.

Small ferris wheel

This is the center of the park, with German-style buildings. Perhaps modeled after Rothenburg.

German-style buildings are also covered with LED lights. Go inside and find only gift shops.

Inside the German-style building is only a gift shop.

German beer

No brotchen or German bread.

Restaurant

Restaurant hardly served German food.

Sausage with mochi twist.

LEDS lights on the facade.

The lights turn on right after sunset which is 5 pm or later. People waited to see it turn on.

The lights did not disappoint. Very impressive.

Every 30 min., a song by the boy band SMAP blared through the speakers and the lights blinked along with the song. No German music.

I was curious to see how an amusement park in Chiba would dare to compete with Tokyo Disneyland, also in Chiba. But they seem to be doing quite well with low admission fees, huge open spaces, and different attractions in each season. Saw lots of people, family-oriented too.

This facade is covered with musician LED designs.

Picture-taking service

Tunnel to the rolling, illuminated hills.

Besides the Village, they light up a large swath of the surrounding rolling hills. They have a few footpaths to walk through the lights on the ground.

They also had a hilltop lookout point (seen here in the distance) to get a bird's eye view, but I didn't go up there.

Very impressive, it was worth the trouble to get here by bus.

I'm inclined to believe their claim to have the biggest Christmas light decorations in the Tokyo area.